Health Secretary: TRHA must give value for money

Secretary of Health, Wellness and Family Development Tracy Davidson-Celestine has told the new Tobago Regional Health Authority (TRHA) it will be asked to do more with less.

The board was installed on Monday at a ceremony at the Division of Community Development, Enterprise Development and Labour, Scarborough.

The nine-member board, chaired by Ingrid Melville, will be in charge until 2022.

In her address, Davidson-Celestine highlighted some of the challenges the new board will immediately face.

She said, “Financial responsibility will always be a contentious issue... All of us are being asked to do more with less. You must ensure that in everything you do there is value for money. Therefore, some of your first priorities must be the implementation of a performance management system, ensuring that there is are quality management systems in place.”

She also cited previous research/reports commissioned by TRHA and recommended “models which can be easily implemented, the time is right now to ensure that those documents are dusted off and implemented."

Davidson-Celestine said the goal remains to make Tobago's healthcare one of the best in the world.

“Our vision and objective (are) to make healthcare in Tobago the gold standard nationally, regionally and internationally. This is not an easy task, but it is a most significant one for the people of Tobago.”

Councillor Nadine Stewart-Phillips, assistant secretary in the division, also had some words of advice.

She added, “Integrity, flexibility, accountability, confidentiality and transparency are few of the watchwords you must adopt if you are to gain the trust and respect from both your internal and external stakeholders.”

TRHA board members:

Ingrid Melville (chairman), Beverly Nola Adams (deputy chairman), Dr Carlton Guy, Dr Sandeep Kumar, Marilyn Procope-Beckles, Akissi London, Carlos Hazel, Ronald Celestine and Trudy Caraballo.